


The Perimeter

by anneapocalypse



Series: Flaws [5]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Carolina and Wash not talking, Gap Filler, Gen, Leonard L. Church Being an Asshole, RvB Fill in the Blanks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 11:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25849102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anneapocalypse/pseuds/anneapocalypse
Summary: Chorus is in peril, Charon is on their heels, Church won't quit snapping at people, and Carolina doesn't know how to talk to Wash.Gap-filler for season 12 episode 16 "Out of the Frying Pan." Written for theRvB Fill in the Blankschallenge.
Relationships: Agent Carolina & AI Program Epsilon | Leonard Church, Agent Carolina & Agent Washington (Red vs. Blue)
Series: Flaws [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/96962
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36
Collections: RvB Fill in the Blanks





	The Perimeter

Carolina lets Church be until they get out of earshot of the Reds and Blues. He's not talking, not even in her head, but she can feel him sitting there at the base of her skull, not exactly seething but more like... sulking. For god's sake. Should have left him with Caboose. Maybe a few hours with his old buddy would set him straight.

Wash treads half a step behind her, also silent. Carolina follows suit until she can't stand all three silences at once.

Was all of that _really_ necessary, Church?

He bristles instantly. _Oh, don't you start in on me, too!_

Church, _nobody_ started in on you.

_The fuck they didn't! You heard what Tucker said._

No, Epsilon, he didn't. You laid into him first.

_What the—I did not—whose side are you on, anyway?_

So we have _sides_ now? I thought we were all a team.

_You know what, forget about it. I don't want to talk about this anymore._

With a blip, he goes offline, his consciousness withdrawing from hers like a wire going dead. The AI equivalent of going to your room and slamming the door, she supposes.

She probably should have let him cool off for a while first.

And anyway, like she's one to talk. Maybe she never spoke to her team like _that_. But the annoyance spilling through in his voice, the resentment because they just won't _listen—_

Well, it stings.

"Carolina, everything okay?"

Wash's voice startles her. "I'm—yeah, Wash, I'm fine."

"You stopped suddenly. I thought maybe you saw something…"

It happens a lot these days, not realizing how deep she's sunk into her own head. Maybe a side effect of having Epsilon in there. Don't know. Never had an AI in the field before.

Lock it down, Carolina. Stay focused. Supposed to be patrolling the perimeter.

"I'm good, Wash." She scans the area, taking some readings with her HUD. Nothing but reddish rock and sand and hardy desert foliage for kilometers, nothing on radar, no unusual sensor readings. She tries to call up an explanation for her sudden halt that isn't _I was having a conversation in my head right next to you._ The words won't come, and she looks away, and starts walking again.

They march on in silence for a while longer, up and over a little ridge with a good view of the surrounding area, over the bit of ruined road that runs through, which once probably connected these remote outposts to the nearby cities and to each other. You can still tell where it was, but it's been heavily damaged by some kind of artillery. She wonders how many skirmishes have taken place around these outposts, how long ago they were abandoned.

It's unsettling, how empty this planet feels. Even more so when you see those echoes of where people once were.

Wash's head turns at a distant screeching sound, and Carolina's gaze follows, but it's just a bird of some kind. Her HUD picks it up, labels it _wildlife._ Wash will be seeing the same reading she sees. No need for either of them to mention it. They both look, register the data, walk on.

God, she wishes she had something to say right now. Anything, even a comment on the weather, as stupid as that would be. Better would be something about strategy, about how they're going to turn this terrible impossible situation around in the little time they have. Win against the odds, be _Freelancers._

How to stop everyone's stupid bickering and get the job done.

How do we be a _team_ again, Wash?

Because this feels too much like the last time she had a team. Everyone fragmenting, splintering, turning on each other. It's _not._ It's not like that, the Reds and Blues don't have _those_ kinds of fights. They're just petty and argumentative and lately Church is being the worst of them all. She can feel where it's coming from, that frustration and anger and _fear_ she feels balled up at the base of her skull when he sits there simmering. But not how to help him. Not what to say to fix things.

Was he always like this?

But that's the question she can't ask Wash, could never ask Wash.

So they walk on, side by side, taking the same scans and surveilling the same ground, and circle back to camp, and they don't speak.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
